The strange quantum transition from the pseudogap metal to the Fermi liquid
August 12, 2020 (Wed.) at 3PM (ET)
Numerous experiments have explored the phases of the cuprates with increasing doping density p from the antiferromagnetic insulator. There is now strong evidence that the small p region is a novel phase of matter, often called the pseudogap metal, separated from conventional Fermi liquid at larger p by a quantum phase transition. I will describe recent numerical and theoretical results on a model with random and all-to-all electron hopping and exchange interactions. Remarkably, this simple model captures much of the observed phenomenology, and contains a deconfined quantum critical point which can exhibit the observed linear-in-temperature resistivity in an intermediate “strange metal” regime. I will also describe recent ideas on models without disorder, which use ancilla qubits to obtain a critical theory with emergent gauge fields and ghost Fermi surfaces.